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Friday, April 3, 2015

A-to-Z Blogging Challenge Day 6: Feast of the Fallen

DISCLAIMER/OVERVIEW: So, I'm kind of cheating for this year's A-to-Z blogging challenge, and I'm having others write it for me (minus a couple of days which I'll write myself). I'm having various writers from Expanded Petty Gods write feasts/holidays that celebrate/honor/involve a god penned by that person. Unfortunately, the posts will be sporadic and completely out of order; the idea came to me late, and I'm dealing with things as they come in (which is why this is actually post #2, on day #3, for letter #6).

My goal at the end of the month is to collect these feast days into a free PDF that will supplement Expanded Petty Gods. If it's long enough, and if I can get some illustrations for them, I'll also consider putting out an "at cost" print edition as well.

Today's post is for the feast of The Fallen One,
the petty god of fallen warriors and unsung heroes.

Feast of the FallenBY RICHARD J. LEBLANC, JR.
Association: The Fallen One

It is The Fallen One who roams the world’s battlefields, often while the smokes of war still hang over them, gathering the spirits of the fallen warriors and unsung heroes of the battle. He escorts them to his great banquet hall, and feasts with them before sending them on to their final destiny... to be forgotten by the histories of the mortal world.

The Feast of the Fallen is not an occasion observed by mortals, for if it were, the fallen warriors would not be forgotten, and The Fallen One would cease to exist. Rather, the Feast of the Fallen is a millennial celebration hosted by The Fallen One.

On the night of the feast, the banquet hall of The Fallen One grows magically longer so that every forgotten warrior (from the whole of history) has a seat at his table. The warriors gather together, coming far and wide from the forgotten places upon the planes where their souls reside, and The Fallen One toasts them. He then disperses their spirits to the Material Plane to roam the battlefields where each of them died.

Once on the battlefield, the spirit of a fallen warrior has the chance to make contact with a resident of the Material Plane, tell his or her story, and try to ensure that this or her name will be remembered (e.g., written down). Should the spirit of a fallen warrior do so successfully, The Fallen One will cry a single tear of simultaneous joy and sorrow for that warrior, and release the warrior from his ranks. That warrior may then take up a more proper residence (that is, a residence in a place of remembrance) in the upper or lower planes (depending on the warrior's alignment).

At dawn of the next day, those warriors who remain unremembered return to their forgotten places upon the planes, waiting 1,000 years for the next Feast of the Fallen.